A GM plant in Ryan’s district shut down on Obama’s watch – From Ryan’s speech:

My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked
about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in
Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant.
Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our
government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another
hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day.

The plant shut down in June 2008,
when George W. Bush is president. Ryan says it had not yet shut down
Obama was elected, that Janesville was “about to” lose the factory at
the time of the election. This is false, as Ryan knew in 2008 when he
issued a statement bemoaning the plant’s closing.

Before we address the errors and omission in Matthews' analysis, let's note some trouble in Paradise - Glenn Kessler rates this as merely "misleading", and counters with different information:

In his acceptance speech,
GOP Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan appeared to suggest that
President Obama was responsible for the closing of a GM plant in Ryan’s
hometown of Janesville, Wisc.

That’s not true. The plant was closed in December, 2008, before Obama
was sworn in. But look how Ryan came close to the line in his speech:

“Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: ‘I believe that if
our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for
another hundred years.’ That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned
out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to
this day.”

Obama gave his speech in February, 2008, and he did say those words.
But Ryan’s phrasing, referring to the fact the plant did not last
another year, certainly suggests it closed in 2009, when Obama was
president.

Getting closer! Here in Realityville, the plant closing was announced in June 2008; the last SUVs rolled off the line in December 2008, while Bush was a lame duck, and the plant was finally idled (to stand-by status) in 2009:

Green was one of 1,200 employees let go when GM ended SUV production at the southern Wisconsin plant.

...

About 50 workers will remain at the Janesville plant to complete an
order of small- to medium-duty trucks for Isuzu Motors Ltd. They’re
scheduled to finish by May or June, and then the plant will close down
for good, GM spokesman Christopher Lee said.

Lest you wonder, GM does not close a plant by way of aerial bombardment. The plant is mothballed and wishful thinkers contined to hope (as of Sept 2011, anyway) that GM would re-open it.

So, what did Ryan actually say? He claimed, and Kessler confirms [or see Captain Ed for more], that Obama promised in Feb 2008 that a sympathetic government could save the plant. As of this writing, that promise has not been kept, even though the Obama-led goverment became the majority owner of GM after Obama's ascension in January 2009.

Presumably the economics did not work out, and the recovery has surely been weaker than expected (which was Ryan's point.) Still, nothing Ryan said is false - Obama promised to save a plant that had been in trouble for years, had the power to do so after his election, yet didn't.

Dylan Matthews didn't even mange to get the timeline right. Glenn Kessler almost nailed the timing (the bulk of the jobs were gone by Dec 2008) but doesn't seem to grasp that closed plants can be re-opened. That is some fine job being done among the self-styled "reality-based" community.

Yesterday, at an ABC News panel, Mitt Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said,
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”
Wednesday’s speech from Paul Ryan certainly took that disdain for truth
to heart, as his address was filled with falsehoods from start to
finish.

Let’s start with the chronologically impossible. Ryan spoke about the GM plant in his hometown of Janesville:

Well, there is no way James Downie can do fact-checking until he discovers Google; the plant was not finally and fully closed until 2009 and could have been re-opened at least until September 2011.

STILL MORE: Jon Cohn of TNR leads with the Janesville plant as one of Ryan's five "misrepresentations" in "the most dishonest convention speech ever" (with a question mark.) Obviously Ryan struck some nerves.

BRING BACK THE JOURNOLIST: I deplore this lack of coordination among the partisan "fact-checkers" of the left. Let's go back to Dylan Matthews:

Wonkblog went about sorting the true from the misleading and the downright false.

TRUE

Obama cut Medicare - Ryan blasted the cuts to
Medicare reimbursements and Medicare advantage included in the
Affordable Care Act. “They just took it all away from Medicare,” Ryan
declared. “Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of
Medicare by President Obama.” That much is correct
– the Affordable Care Act contained over $700 billion in cuts to
Medicare reimbursement rates and Medicare advantage. The Obama
administration insists the cuts will not hurt quality and are necessary
to control costs, while the Romney-Ryan campaign disputes this, but the
underlying claim is correct.

Paul Ryan gave a feisty anti-Obama speech that will have fact-checkers
working for days. His most brazen lie accused President Obama of
“raiding” Medicare by taking the exact same $716 billion that Ryan and
the House GOP notoriously voted to slash. It was stunning.

I guess not everyone is stunned by the truth. Let's go to Paul Ryan's stunning bit on Medicare:

The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled
health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of
Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.

And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.

You
see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care
takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the
planners in Washington still didn’t have enough money. They needed
more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all
away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars,
funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to
our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new
entitlement we didn’t even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is
Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.

In Congress, when they
take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go
back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma,
Janet, had Alzheimer’s and moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt
lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.

We
had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it’s there for my
Mom today. Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan
administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom’s
generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.

So our
opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this
issue, the usual posturing on the Left isn’t going to work. Mitt
Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program, and
raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We
want this debate. We will win this debate.

I think that taking money out of Medicare to reduce the projected growth in our national debt is different from taking money out of Medicare to fund yet another entitlement intended to buy votes for the Democrats and insure Obama's legacy. That, at least, is the stunning debate Paul Ryan is prepared to engage.

Nothing Ryan said is even remotely misleading.
Only if your lips are firmly attached to Obama's half white little member, could you possibly come to the conclusions that Kessler came to.
Obama SAID WHAT HE SAID in Janesville. And the plant is closed. As is the Solyndra plant. If you are a moron or a lying LIBTARD, you may see your job as protecting OBAMA. I am neither. Ryans point, was that Obama has made promises he cannot, nor does he have any intention of keeping.

Didn't GM keep a plant in Oiho (with more electoral votes than WI) instead of Janesville? It was played that way in the Milwaukee press.

Obama picking winners to keep the Gov in GovMo and the Once in the White House. Not that one old GM plant made more sense than another, heck, all the plants were struggling (bankruptcy is funny that way).

TomM say: "I think that taking money out of Medicare to reduce the projected growth in our national debt is different from taking money out of Medicare to fund yet another entitlement intended to buy votes for the Democrats and insure Obama's legacy. That, at least, is the stunning debate Paul Ryan is prepared to engage." And it's a debate Ryan will win with 'persuadable' voters. Why?-- under Obamacare-- It's ALL BORROWED money to pay for Medicaid expansion. So if you're borrowing it for Medicaid, you can't borrow it for Medicare. It's simple arithmatic -- Ryan will teach ALOT of simple arithmatic to persuadable voters. He'll win that debate-- because the only comeback Bam has is -- 'WE'LL BORROW MORE!!!" Goodbye Bam.

"It's hard to know what the Democratic Party stands for anymore. All we know is that it is against racism. Never before has an entire election been run around a single negative issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual challenges facing the country."

and

"Race is a distraction, but it's more than that. A false argument is like a mask. You can put it on, but after a while you can't take it off. The more time that the left spends immersed in the grammar of racial grievance, the less able it is to speak any other language. The Democrats aren't just cynical, they are also becoming illiterate and unable to articulate ideas that don't revolve around a great split between races, genders or two groups, one oppressed and one oppressing."

NJ Jan-- the legacy media will never overtly attack a black conservative like Love, they'll freeze her out as best they can, but when they do a profile, they won't overtly attack her. They'll wait for a scandal and then pounce like they do on all conservatives.

NEW YORK -- The number of people filing for their first week of unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, following three straight weeks of increases, the government said Thursday. The Labor Department said 374,000 people filed first-time jobless claims in the week ended Aug. 25. That was slightly more than the forecasts of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

MelR-- I referenced earlier the pressure on BLS-- I guess they will assume those 99 week people have gone on long-term disability-- or something. The BLS reports will have the mother of all readjustments that first Friday --IN DECEMBER.

NK,
I agree but thought that this video showed her to great advantage and is good to circulate. I posted on my facebook page and people who are not politically well informed were surprised and reacted positively. That it is from a non "conservative " source helps the less aware voter to at least take a look. Its not right, but it is reality around here.

AP:France's unemployment rate is 10 percent, but 22.8 percent for those under 25. French employers are especially reluctant to hire young people because restrictive labor laws make it very hard for companies to lay off new employees. Under the plan, unveiled at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, companies that hire people between 16 and 25 for at least a year will only have to pay 25 percent of their salary

I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear this and similar targeted bribing from BOzo in Charlotte.

Andy Pandy-- the link below is a re-post of Andy pandy's 2004 Kerry endorsement. it was shortly after that that our email chats became far less frequent -- ended by Christmas 2005. Andy Pandy's post is even more vomitous today. Whatever the cause, HIV drugs, gay marriage, Andy does not have the intellectual faculties -- at least on display-- he had 10-20 years ago.

MSNBC? So all 10 people will see it. I am very afraid. Lets roll the tape of what Obama said, at Janesville, and then the You didnt build that speech. Play as much context as you like I am good with clips or the whole miserable rancid thing.

Then it will be obvious that Obama is a pandering unserious mook and his minions and lickspittles are liars and water carriers for a pandering and unserious mook.

Per Althouse, Joan Walsh maintains that the following passage reveals Ryan's "Randian roots":

“When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life... I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That’s what we do in this country. That’s the American Dream. That’s freedom, and I’ll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.”

If so, I guess we are all Randians now. At least, those of us who are not at the public trough.

GMAX, something tells me that Team Obama/MSM is not going to be focusing on this too long. Quibbling about timing of plant closings is not going to override the fact that Obumbles has been a failure at promoting policies that set a framework for economic growth. If Team Obama/MSM keeps harping on this, there are plenty of plants shuttered in 2010 and 2011 and 2012 that would provide a visual backdrop for a Romney/Ryan response ad. In fact, I wonder whether the way Ryan presented the Janesville situation set an intentional trap for Team Obama/MSM. The last thing Obumbles wants this campaign to be about is the timing of closing of shuttered plants (which I prefer to call "Solyndraed" plants).

Will any Dems be asked about this? Isn't their jihadi prayer service this Friday? Could one lousy MFMer ask any Dems about their alliance with Islam? Arab Spring?....what Arab Spring?
Is this on any news over here?

No worries, narciso. As sublime intellects of the Share Our Pails in the Sandbox School of International Relations keep telling us, Khamenei and Putin and the Red Chinese princelings and the NoKos and Chavez and Castro's Commies will behave if only we make nice.

Wasn't Ryan's promise to put Leviathan on a 20%-GDP diet more important than this minutiae mining exercise? As much as I enjoy a spirited debate over whether sunrise was at 5:26 or 5:27, it's very difficult to determine the net impact at the end of the day.

I'm for letting the prog circle jerk continue without rebuttal until they weary. I'd rather make bets on whether the unemployment rate went up faster than gas prices in the past month (based upon next weeks employment report and the IEA national average). I'm going with gas prices at the moment but the betting window doesn't close until after BOzo's speech next week.

Jim Ryan, at the end of that absurd Wells Fargo article, I noticed this:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provides a waiver process employees can follow to show they're still fit to work at a bank despite a past criminal conviction, but it usually takes six months to a year to be approved.

How many hours of federal employee work time do you think are involved in the "six months to a year" waiver approval process to decide whether a guy who stuck a fake coin in a vending machine 49 years ago is an unacceptable threat to our financial system or not?

Apparently Romney will talk in detail about his Mormon faith in tonights speech -and about his role as a Mormon Bishop. If he becomes President, the LDS will be the most powerful religion in the United States of America and Romney will assure Evangelicals and Baptists tonight that their faith will not be in danger.

President Obama, a practicing Evangelical, has often talked about the love he has for his religon.

"The Humane Society of the United States, which is the wealthiest animal rights organization in the world, gives less than 1%﻿ of their funds to pet shelters. Instead, they work to pass laws that are against farmers and ranchers who feed you, me, and the world. I wish it was a joke, but sadly it's not."

...for just $19.00 a month you can join HSUS in our fight to hire more lawyers...

Janet-the State against its People was the phrase used to describe the USSR.

And that is precisely where we are. We were to be turned into subjects and not even notice.

We have noticed and are not OK with it. Now we appear to have a ticket ready to make it an issue before the chains have been welded shut. Right now they are just padlocked and Ryan knows where the keys are kept. And Romney is listening to him on how to take them off.

DOT-my titles making reference to communitarianism are an understatement if anything. The group and its emotionally driven consensus was to have officially trumped the primacy of the individual.

I'm a little confused here. This GM PLANT in JANESVILLE,WISCONSIN is it OPEN or CLOSED.
I'm not clear on that. I mean with all of the MILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIONS of jobs saved OR created, it's hard to keep track.
Obama has been President for nearly 4 years. Do we have MORE or LESS people working??

Janesville-- The Lesson? the Legacy media is so lousy now, that they don't understand that when Axelrod feeds them talking points, the points are pure BS. The Legacy Media are a disgrace on so many levels.

Obama apparently said:
"And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. "

That seems more like a statement of belief than a promise. Sort of like "I think this stock will go up 20% next year" versus a guaranteed income certificate with a 20% return. What do you think?

President Obama, a practicing Evangelical, despite the fact that he has only been to church about 3 times since assuming office, has often talked about the love he has for his religon, especially how it clarifies that "this is a world where white mens' greed... runs a world in need."

RobertBell@1:12-- splitting hairs and making angels dance on pinheads doesn't save Bam here. he went to Janesville at a time of great economic distress after 25 GOOD economic years (starting with Reagan), and said time for change -- go my GREEN way and you'll have 100 good years!! Bam's "statement of belief" as you put it was a bunch of Unicorn Farts then, and the last 4 years has proven it to be worse than phony wishful thinking because of the DEBT, and-business regulation and cronyism Bam has layered on US society. Bam/Biden will NEVER mention Janesville in the campaign -- book it.This was just an Axelrod/Media drive-by to try to smear Ryan.

Robert Bell has corrected the record. Obama was only engaging in speculation and nothing more. No promises, no attempt to garner support for government intervention. It was just a thought. He was thinking out loud, that's all.

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen."

"a practicing Evangelical"....yeah right. Unless the left is changing the meaning of that word too...which is possible.

Thank you, TM, for putting it so well. Scanning stocks on the Yahoo Finance page the same leftist propaganda is repeated.

I don't know if anyone noticed, bt Ryan also
stated that the mess has many authors on both sides, but now we must get on with fixing the damage. I really liked that.

I thought it was a brilliant, highly principled, factually accurate speech. The Left uses the tactics of a defense counsel every time they parse a Republican statement. Even factually accurate statements are challenged word by word, put in the word-o-matic and regurgitated as propaganda.

$715 Billion was removed from Medicare and the Dems want us to believe that services will magically remain the same. This is Magical Realism. Perhaps their prism is that of Garcia Marquez, but more likely it is through that of a pot smoking sophomore at Swarthmore.

Am I being too critical about this? I'm listening to Dennis Miller, whom I always enjoy, on the car radio and he's talking about last night's speakers and he mentions "That governor Hernandez". I roll my eyes, sigh, and say "No it's Martinez, you effing idiot" because he can hear me through the radio and values my feedback. Except my radio's obviously not functioning properly because he repeats it about 3 times before a listener calls up and corrects him, which he laughs off as no big whoop. My reaction is that he should've done his homework and some potential hispanic supporter might be put off be this. I'm firmly opposed to any Jeb Bush level pandering to any group but taking the time to having your facts correct is not pandering imo, and falls under the category of being professional.

"The point is that his vision was dead wrong." DoT-- and not only wrong, but Obama lied through his teeth about that 'vision' he left out the $5Trillion in debt, the Obamacare socialized medicene and individual mandate, the rampant cronyism. Obama is both a failure and a liar.

I listened to the entire sub-literate doggerel live and was amazed that anybody took it as anything other than embarrassing. I figured the rest of the spectacle was just as disgusting and stopped watching.

The ONE: "As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America."

"The purveyors of fakeness have demonstrated their ability to transform the unreal into the real through manufactured consensus. By insisting that something unpopular was popular often enough, they made it popular. And by insisting that something popular is really unpopular, they did the opposite."

blah, blah, blah,....repeated lies become "common knowledge". Ryan lied in his speech, Bush lied us into Iraq, Plame was a secret agent, ....